title: Nutrition therapy using a multidisciplinary team improves survival rates in patients with liver cirrhosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Very few reports thus far have clinically elucidated the advantages of a nutrition support team (NST) in the field of liver diseases. The present study retrospectively analyzed whether nutrition therapy for liver cirrhosis (LC), performed by a multidisciplinary team that includes registered dieticians, improves survival rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  In study 1, we compared survival rates between two groups of patients with LC to elucidate the effects of nutrition management by registered dieticians. The first group was comprised of 101 patients that received no dietary counseling from a dietician, and the second group was comprised of 133 patients that received nutritional counseling following nutrition assessment. In study 2, we split the patients who received nutritional counseling in study 1 into two groups and compared their survival rates with the objective of investigating the effects of a multidisciplinary team approach on survival rate. The first group was comprised of 51 patients that, in addition to regular nutritional counseling given by a dietician, regularly attended courses on liver disease given every 3 to 6 mo. The second group was comprised of 82 patients that did not attend the liver-disease courses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During study 1, 34 patients in the first group and 20 patients in the second group died, representing a significant difference (P < 0.05). This difference was even more pronounced in the subset of patients classified as Child-Pugh class A (P < 0.01), but no differences were seen among patients in classes B and C (P = 0.378). During study 2, four patients in the first group and 15 patients in the second group died, representing a significant difference (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that nutritional intervention using a multidisciplinary team during the treatment of LC improves survival rates and quality of life of the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu, Japan. Electronic address: motoh@clin.medic.mie-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Motoh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iwasa
authors.forename: Kazuko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Nagisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Ayana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Masumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishidome
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sekoguchi-Fujikawa
authors.forename: Rumi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mifuji-Moroka
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Yoshinao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takei
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
keywords: Liver cirrhosis; Multidisciplinary approach; Nutrition support team; Survival